Lithuania's ratification of EU-Canada trade deal postponed until fall

Lithuania's ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada is likely to be postponed until the fall, although Lithuanian diplomats expected the parliament to ratify the free trade treaty by the end of its spring session.

The document is yet to be discussed by the Seimas Committee on Health Affairs.

Agne Sirinskiene, the committee's head, told BNS that the issue would likely be put on the agenda in the fall session.

"I think we will discuss it in September, because the committee has an extremely heavy workload. We devoted three meetings to discussing draft amendments to the Law on Alcohol Control and we are already running behind schedule with discussions on budget laws," she said.

Sirinskiene said that she had not yet carefully read the agreement.

The CETA ratification procedure has passed the first-reading stage at the Seimas. The parliament has appointed the Committee on Foreign Affairs as the lead committee on this matter and the Committee on Health Affairs and the Committee on Rural Affairs as additional committees.